Snatches
by tenneyshoes
Summary: Small vingettes from the life of the Gaang. Mostly Taang centered.


**Meditation**

Aang was pleasantly surprised when his wife showed a certain talent in meditation. The usually loud, off the walls, earthbender managed to sit completely still for at least an hour longer than he could comfortably. When he asked her about it, she replied, "Isn't the reason you picked me as your master because I can wait and listen?"

**Scars**

Gentle fingers traced the warped skin of his back- an eternal reminder of a part of a past he wished he could forget; but as he looks over his shoulder at his wife, he can't help but think she carries a scar from a past that was never hers, for a mistake that was his. But he loves it when her scarred eyes light up when he promises nothing will ever scar her again.

**Grave I**

One of the few times Toph actually cursed the vibrations was on that ash island when she saw the bones of her best friend, buried far below.

**Grave II**

A shiver danced up his spine when Aang realized he was standing over his own grave, buried deep in the ash.

**Grace**

It always hypnotized Aang, how the petite metalbender could slide through the rigid forms of her art with such stability and power, without losing a hint of the grace that entranced him.

**Line***

Aang always laughed when Sokka and Zuko told him the horror stories of when they had crossed the line with their wives, how it moved and meant sure annihilation. He found the concept absurd. Then he married Toph Bei Fong.

**Contradiction**

It always seemed to be a contradiction, but whenever Aang fought Toph, when he was forced to use vibrations, the solid, earth-centered girl was surprisingly light on her feet.

**Annoy****

Most of the time Aang did it on purpose just to see her reaction, but eventually Toph seemed to become immune to it. She finally stopped reacting. This called for desperate measures. "I'll take the Meat Lover's Platter please." "What? NO!"

Mission Accomplished

**Scent**

Being a high bred lady of society, she should have smelt of rare flowers and exotic incense, but Aang loved her earthy scent, just under the smoky campfire smell.

**Collaboration**

When she goes to the temples, she is blasted by the sense of balance. After all, the only way these spires could exist is with the help of earthbenders.

**Ancient**

Most people wouldn't expect it, but one of Toph's favorite places in the world was the Western Air Temple. Just the feeling of the sheer power it took the earthbenders who made it gives her an amazing feeling of the ancient connection with her husband's element and her own.

**Eye of the Storm**

It was amazing! Aang and his friends had been the very center of the war, the special ops team that was destined to end it. And yet, as he watched his family around him, Katara and Zuko playing with their little boy, Sokka carrying his daughter on his shoulders, his arm draped casually around Suki, and his own wife, Toph joking with them all as she sipped her tea next to Iroh, her hand resting on her pregnant belly, the Avatar realized just how unscathed they had come out, sitting in the middle of everything.

**Jack of All Trades**

They say the Avatar was supposed to be the master of all elements. He will never really be the master, when he divides his time between four, while his own masters have dedicated their lives to the study of their arts.

**Youth**

People murmur as they watch the twenty-three year old Avatar spin the silver marble around for the children. They immediately scatter as the icy glare of his wife seers into them – why can't they just understand that, to someone with a destiny as serious as Aang's, being a child all the time is the only way he stays sane.

**Monument**

The first time Aang heard someone complain about the inconvenience of the monument in the middle of the Capitol, he was frustrated; Toph was livid: She stormed up to the young school children, half her age, and in a chilling whisper said, "Be grateful that monument is there. Because without it, you would be executed for saying that." The next day as he passed the waterfall, lilies scattered the pond surface, as the children bowed to the soldiers under the water.

**Midnight**

Aang groaned as he rubbed his sore eyes, spots flashing under his eyelids from the candle burning on his desk. He groaned again as he felt his wife's hands gently rub his shoulders as she told him to come to bed and sleep!

**Obedience**

Aang was astounded when Toph first described to him how earth was stubborn, unyielding and needed to be commanded, yet the second she moved to demonstrate, the earth virtually fell over itself to obey.

**Saving Grace**

Katara had always been gentle and kind toward Aang, even when reaching into the uncontrolled halestorm of the Avatar State, slowly pulling him down, and hugging him until he had control of his emotions again; Toph's method was to simply tackle the man to the ground and yell at him to get a grip and be a rock, and it brought him back to himself so much faster.

**Wrong**

Aang had finally pieced together what Yang Chan had meant – the Avatar could never detach himself from the world, because his sole duty was to the world – and as he danced with his wife at his wedding, he had never been more glad that, even as much as he respected him, Guru Patik had been completely wrong about letting it all go.

**Twisted**

Aang couldn't believe it: the sound he loved most in the world, Toph's laugh, had become a lethal weapon as his wife's eyes stared out at him from the facestealer's cave.

**Unfinished**

Toph has an unexplainable sense of dread as she steps into the Spirit Oasis, an insane instinct to turn and run, but something more than Aang's hand in hers holds her there, like there is some purpose she must fulfill before she can leave this haunted hallow.

**Cook**

"Of course I can cook!" Toph had scoffed, "Taste and smell are extremely similar; all I have to do is add what smells good together."

**Monk**

"We took oaths of peace, Toph, not abstinence," he told her on their wedding night.

**Nightmare**

When he pushes her bangs back, her misty eyes aren't there.

**Colors**

The day Poppy Bei Fong sat her daughter down was the worst day ever: "Now Toph, for the wedding do you want ivory, eggshell, or crème?"

**Inconsistency**

Earthbenders were surprisingly inconsistent with their philosophy. Where on one hand they all agreed one had to be immovable in order to command the earth, face everything headon, they all seemed to live by the creed of 'opening your mind to the possibilites'.

**Homemaker**

"Don't forget," Toph grinned, as she slipped into her horse stance, "I was the Avatar's earthbending master before I was ever his prissy little house wife."

**Small Sacrifice**

As much as Toph hated this city with nothing but rules, walls, and secrets, it was worth it to spend an afternoon trading stories, advice and tea with the old General.

**Run**

Finally something the Blind Bandit and the Avatar have in common.

**Appa**

Even as Aang yelled at her, Toph knew she would never forgive herself for letting them take Appa, if only because, Prithvi help her, she cared for that great furball as much as her student.

**Momo**

Aang was amazed at how jeleous he was of the small lemur nestled in his wife's arms.

**Past-tense**

"Toph, I haven't lov_ed_ anything about you because I _still love_ everything about you!" the Avatar exclaimed, scooping his wife into his arms.

**Important**

"What if someone tries to hurt you because they want to get to me?" Aang asked frantically. "You're not _that_ important Avatar. If they try to hurt me it's because _I'm_ the awesome one," she growled back, rapping his forehead with her knuckles.

**Metalbending**

"Toph Bei Fong, you're a mad genius!" He exclaimed when she told him of her new talent.

**Soul**

He knew Toph was an earthbende through and through – she was strong and patient, heck, she was stability incarnate! But despite all of that, as she tossed her bag on Appa and yelled at him to stop dragging his feet, he just _knew_ she had the spirit of an Airbender.

**Hero worship**

That was the difference between the two women in his life; Katara had seen him as a chance to help her master her bending, and a way to help others which was her defining characteristic, and she loved him for it. Toph saw him as some goofy little kid who had screwed over her perfect record and then had the audacity to ask her to train him, and all powerful Avatar or not, she wasn't going to give him an inch.

**Reverse**

"What just happened?" Toph demanded. "The ground is above me and the sky is below me! Where the heck did you bring me Twinkle Toes! I thought this was an Air Temple!"

**Idea**

"It's called Republic City. Will you help me?" Of course they said yes.

**Stare**

There are so many different ways a person can be looked at, the Avatar muses. A simple curious glance from passerby in a street; the awe struck faces peering up at him after he had ended the war; the hungry leer of ladder climbing government officials; the glare of his father in law every time they visit; or the soft grinning smirk of his wife when she manages to use his naïve trust against him in the perfect prank, yet again.

**Sight**

Fingers were always better than eyes, in Toph's opinion. With eyes, there was always to much to take in. Fingers were much better.

**Sound**

The first time Toph heard Aang laugh, she just knew there was something special about him.

**Time**

Everyone thought Toph would be devastated after Aang had passed away. The old couple had spent an amazing life together, with five wonderful children. When Toph sat at Aang's funeral service without any hint of tears, her worried friends approached, afraid she was still in shock or denial. "Didn't you love him?" Katara asked, a bit spitefully. "Of course I did! I still do!" Toph replied. "But if there's one thing I learned from being the wife of the Avatar, it's that everything has its time here, and Aang's is over. He deserves some peace. I'm not going to taint that by being a cry baby."

**Steel**

Everyone said he was just the sweet-hearted, soft Air Nomad, even if he was the Avatar. Toph knew better. Yes, while her husband was everything they said about his tender nature, she knew behind those caring eyes, under that soft heart was a resolve stronger than anything she had ever come up against.

**Enforcer**

"You can't be serious," Toph muttered in disbelief. "I'm the most anti-rule, anti-control, anti-authoritarian person in this or the Spirit World and you want me to be your fricking Chief of _Police!_

**Music**

Listening to Iroh play his sungi horn in the All Day Echo Chamber was Toph's favorite music night yet!

**Echo**

Sometimes, more than sound echoes, Toph decides as she steps into the Face-stealers cave.

**Tea**

Whenever any of them needed advice, they would brew a pot of tea, so Aang was not surprised when he came to his friends and Toph pulled out an old battered tea pot, even a decade after its beloved owner had passed away.

***Two of my friends and I were talking about this one, and I got a total kick out of it because I am a girl and I had no idea what they were talking about. They told me they were absolutely terrified by '**_**the line**_**'.**

**** My brother does this to his wife all the time, and it seemed like something Aang would do.**


End file.
